Poll on Campaign Finance Rules Triggered

The State Administration and Veterans' Affairs Interim Committee has received 23 letters from members of the legislature objecting to 16 proposed new and revised campaign finance rules. By law, this requires the committee to conduct a poll of the legislature about legislative intent when it passed campaign finance law revisions during the 2015 session.

The letters of objection and the poll will be discussed during the committee's meeting on Nov. 17. It is also expected that the committee will discuss whether to renew its Aug. 19 objection to the rules, which would further delay their adoption. If the committee fails to renew its objection, the rules may be adopted any time after the meeting. The legislative poll will not affect the adoption or effective date of the rules, but the results of the poll must be considered by the court if there is ever a legal challenge to the validity of any of the rules included in the poll.

Panel discussions on personal information ownership are also featured on the Nov. 17 meeting agenda. The discussions will cover the collection and use of consumer data, financial information, health care information, and government information. Discussion of state government information will likely cover the recent policies released by the state information technology division asking agencies to classify their information as confidential, secret, or top secret for the purposes of determining the security infrastructure needs of an agency.

For more information about the committee's activities, visit the committee's website at www.leg.mt.gov/sava or contact Sheri Scurr, committee staff, at (406) 444-3596.